Kuban Oblast

The militarized nature of the Kuban meant that, rather than a traditional imperial guberniya (governorate) with uyezds (districts), the territory was administered by the Kuban Cossacks as an oblast which was split into otdels (counties, of which there were seven from 1888 to 1917).[1] Each otdel would have its own sotnias which in turn would be split into stanitsas and khutors. The ataman (commander) for each region was not only responsible for the military preparation of the Cossacks, but for the local administration duties. Local stanitsa and khutor atamans were elected, but approved by the atamans of the otdel. These, in turn, were appointed by the supreme ataman of the Kuban host, who was in turn appointed directly by the Russian emperor. Prior to 1870, this system of legislature in the oblast remained a robust military one and all legal decisions were carried out by the stanitsa ataman and two elected judges. Afterwards, however, the system was bureaucratized and the judicial functions were independent of the stanitsas.

Ethnic groups in 1897; yellow represents Ukrainians and red, Russians (in Ukrainian)

In 1897, 1,918,881 people inhabited the oblast. Ukrainians constituted a relative majority in the population, with Russians and several much smaller minorities making up the remainder. The total Slavic population was 1,742,162 (90.8%).

Caucasian Calendar of 1917

The 1917 Caucasian Calendar which produced statistics of 1916 indicates 3,022,683 residents in the Kuban Oblast, including 1,523,057 men and 1,499,626 women, 1,870,280 of whom were the permanent population, and 1,152,403 were temporary residents.[3]

Ethno-religious groups in the Kuban Oblast according to the 1917 Caucasian Calendar[3]

Otdel (county)	Russians		Other Europeans	Georgians	Armenians	North Caucasians	Kurds	Other Asian Nationalities			Gypsies	Jews	TOTAL
	Orthodox	Sectarian						Christian	Shia Muslim	Sunni Muslim
Batalpashinsk	208,285	1,448	5,276	0	390	77,851	0	3,268	0	601	0	1,089	298,208
	69.8%	0.5%	1.8%	0.0%	0.1%	26.1%	0.0%	1.1%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.4%	100.0%
Eisk	381,738	331	1,630	0	770	8	0	0	172	120	6	71	384,846
	99.2%	0.1%	0.4%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	100.0%
Ekaterinodar	322,993	1,923	6,779	708	8,420	28,710	45	385	0	1,084	269	472	371,788
	86.9%	0.5%	1.8%	0.2%	2.3%	7.7%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.3%	0.1%	0.1%	100.0%
Caucasian	449,454	5,527	5,280	224	1,046	72	0	0	629	0	0	3	462,235
	97.2%	1.2%	1.1%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	100.0%
Laba	484,220	15,964	8,935	6	9,150	406	0	2	5	2	57	27	518,774
	93.3%	3.1%	1.7%	0.0%	1.8%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	100.0%
Maikop	427,037	7,974	1,350	58	1,721	25,225	0	0	0	4,629	0	459	468,453
	91.2%	1.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.4%	5.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	1.0%	0.0%	0.1%	100.0%
Taman (Temryuk)	510,864	1,273	1,515	0	3,074	1,399	0	5	8	0	9	232	518,379
	98.6%	0.2%	0.3%	0.0%	0.6%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	100.0%
TOTAL	2,784,591	34,440	30,765	996	24,571	133,671	45	3,660	814	6,436	341	2,353	3,022,683
	92.1%	1.1%	1.0%	0.0%	0.8%	4.4%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	100.0%

A 1916 map of Kuban Oblast with the neighboring Black Sea Governorate and part of Sukhumi Okrug (in Russian).